Londonderry Is Falling Down (Part 7 of 7)

Londonderry was the last stop on my trip.  I wasn't expecting a lot, since some of the other towns were disappointing, but I ended up liking it more than expected.  I'm jumping ahead, though.  I first left Belfast and passed by Giant's Causeway before going to Londonderry.







Giant's Causeway was pretty impressive - it was a bunch of hexagon-shaped formations from the ground.  Don't ask me about the hows and whys.. all I know is that it was amazing to see.  I spent a bit of time here walking around and taking it all in.

Sheep in Ireland - tough to resist getting a shot.

I was even just impressed by this scenery before Giant's Causeway.  It's so pretty.

It was about a 5-10 minute walk from the visitor's center to the Causeway.  Not bad, but there was a shuttle you could take for an extra fee.

When I was finally able to peel myself away from Giant's Causeway, I made the 2-3 hour drive to Londonderry, which is alternatively referred to as Derry, depending on if you're in Northern Ireland or the Republic.  After having circling around numerous times looking for parking, I can confidently say that the city is picturesque and there's a lot to see in in the city.  Similar to Belfast, Derry is a very political city, most notably known for the Bloody Sunday incident in 1972, when several people died after British police shot at peaceful protesters, which is immortalized in U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday.  Another interesting thing about the city is that it has existing city walls, so you can walk on top of them and see the walled city vs. the modern city now.

The Peace Bridge.  I went on it but didn't explore the other side because I didn't really feel like it.

One of the entrance of the city walls.

This was funny at the time I took the picture (in September) but I've taken so long with updating this blog that the election has already passed and this is just sad now.

The Bloody Sunday memorial

A look at the city from outside the city walls.

A view of the city walls from outside

Standing on top of the city walls.

The Peace Flame

In vs. out the city walls

The Peace Bridge

These were the bunk beds at my hostel in Londonderry.  Good thing it was pretty empty and I had my own bed to myself.  I picked the top bunk because anything else would make me feel claustrophobic, especially the middle one.  This is the bed of the two French women who biked from another city.

Last picture - a foggy look at the Peace Bridge super early in the morning.  (FYI It's December right now and it took me forever to finish this up.  I guess I'm better at this when I update on vacation but there's not always time.)  I woke up pretty early to leave Londonderry and drive back to Dublin, which was about a three to four hour drive, where I was able to say that I officially survived driving in Ireland.  I may have covered it already in the Dublin post, but when I headed back, I did a bit more shopping and randomly ran into my Belfast hostel friend when I was eating (delicious) fries on the steps in Temple Bar.  After a couple drinks in multiple bars, I semi-drunkenly stumbled to the Gaol, then packed and turned in early to get ready for my flight the next day.  It was hard to leave Ireland, as I did so much and had a ton of fun.  But there's still more places to visit in the world (like Spain/Portugal in May) and it's always nice to be home. Finally done!

Belfast and Furious (Part 6 of 7)

After happily fleeing Glasgow, I picked up my rental car (another Nissan Micra but slightly better) to make the long drive to Belfast.  Interesting story: the rental car line was moving soo slowly because there was a French couple who'd crashed their car before they even left the facility.  So the guy behind the counter was trying to communicate with them that the husband (who'd been driving) could not rent the next car and they may want to opt for an automatic, since that's safer than the manual they crashed.  Unfortunately, the French couple had a really limited grasp of English so the guy helping them kept having to ask another French customer to translate.

Anyway,  the drive was a bit of an ordeal.  My original flight was scheduled to land at about 10, which meant that I'd get to the hostel pretty late - after midnight.  So another benefit of leaving Glasgow early was driving and arriving much earlier.  Something I learned is that credit cards aren't as widely accepted in Ireland compared to Scotland and Northern Ireland.  There's also a lot of tolls, which are cash only.  Also, the currency in Scotland and Northern Ireland is the pound, while they use the Euro in Ireland.  (I promise, I'm getting to my point.)

On my way to Belfast, I came to a toll road.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough coins of a single currency to cover the toll.  I had a mix of the two currencies and I drove into the machine-only lane.  Unfortunately, I had to stop my car, press the help button for instructions, walk out to cross three or four lanes to get a toll booth attendant to break my bill for change, and then cross three or four lanes back to finally pay the toll.  I learned why the Boy Scouts say to always be prepared.

The drive was also scary.  The drive was about two hours and it was so dark and it was raining heavily.  The highways were so curvy that I was scared I'd drive off the road.  Thank goodness for high beams.

Northern Ireland was the last leg of my trip, which brought an array of feelings:
-Sadness because it was the beginning of the end of my trip
-Nervousness because I've heard about Northern Ireland's dangerous history
-Excitement to have fled Glasgow

Anyway, Northern Ireland didn't seem like it was dangerous like I'd worried about, but it was a bit grittier than Ireland.  My first stop was the Titanic Museum, which is fairly new - it opened in 2012.  I didn't know, until I looked up fun facts a couple months before my trip, that the Titanic was built in Belfast.  It was way better than I expected, which wasn't too difficult, since I didn't have any expectations.  Interestingly enough, I recently read a Travel + Leisure article that says the museum may be the world's best travel attraction.

It was a nice day, as you can see.  Blue skies and everything.  The museum was so massive that I had to step pretty far away just to get the whole museum in the shot.





It provided a really thorough explanation of the Titanic experience.  It started off with information about H&W, the ship building company, and had this cool mini-ride to have people understand what it must have felt like to work on a ship building yard.  You sit in a car that's suspended by the roof and it lowers you and takes you around to different scenes.  I did take pictures but none of them turned out great.

An actual H&W gate that employees walked in

There was also this great view of the ship yards and the area around.














This was one of my favorite parts. They showed what the first, second and third class cabins would have looked like.  There was also a gigantic screen that gave you a 3D tour of the layout of the entire Titanic.

First class passenger suite

They also highlighted a number of people who were involved in the Titanic.. either as builders, business people involved, passengers, or employees/workers.  (No Jack and Rose, in case you were wondering.)  But there was continuity in providing information about them throughout the museum, so you were wondering their fate.

You can't really see from this picture, but this was the room of the head musician who was depicted in the movie as the musicians who kept playing while the ship was going down.

I think this is the third class passenger cabin. Maybe second?

The latter part of the museum showed the Titanic's distress messages (so sad) and the aftermath of the sinking in Belfast, with the inquiry of the sinking and the Titanic's portrayal in the media.

They showed the communication from the Titanic when the ship was hitting trouble.  This one made me the most sad.

This part was after the disaster that discussed the formal inquiry into what happened on the Titanic.  This is a life boat.

An H&W crane.  They are still in business and I saw a lot of these actual cranes while driving, but I couldn't take a picture.

Another part of admission also included going on the Nomadic ship.  I can't tell you a thing about it because I wasn't incredibly interested.  Compared to the Titanic museum, it was a bit underwhelming.
























Another notable attraction in Belfast was the Peace Wall, which was originally erected to separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in Northern Ireland.

Here's part of the street that faces the Peace Wall.  It's so gritty - even more so after peeking behind those walls.

Other than the Peace Wall, there was also quite a bit of political-themed street art around the area.















Back at the wall, I took a look at the area and it's pretty slummy.  The trash behind some of the areas made it feel a bit eerie and haunting.









The last thing I did in Belfast was visit the Ulster Folk Museum, which made me realize that I like folk museums! I'd previously visited one in Oslo, and it was neat looking at the different buildings and feeling like I was transported to another time.  The only thing is that I went later in the day, when the sun was going down.  So it was dark in some of the houses and I was afraid a ghost would get me.  (I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever had that thought.)

Not a ghost!

A Charlie Chaplin movie was playing

This picture is mostly here so you know that I wore different clothes.  Also, that's a picture on the wall in the mirror.  I wasn't taking an iPad selfie.

The obligatory sheep picture.

A teeny tiny house that's just my size.

That's pretty much all for Belfast.  One more thing. When driving into Belfast, I saw this (below) at night, lit up.  It was really pretty but I couldn't safely take a picture.  I did get one in the daytime.  it's the RISE sculpture and informally known as the Balls on the Falls.


Here's a picture I found online of the sculpture at night.  Pretty, right?